A new patent (number 20120290792) at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office shows that Apple is working on further ways to extend battery life in iPhones, iPods and iPads . The patent is for a media device with intelligent cache utilization.

A portable media device and a method for operating a portable media device are disclosed. According to one aspect, a battery-powered portable media device can manage use of a mass storage device to efficiently utilize battery power.

By providing a cache memory and loading the cache memory so as to provide skip support, battery power for the portable media device can be conserved (i.e., efficiently consumed). According to another aspect, a portable media device can operate efficiently in a seek mode. The seek mode is an operational mode of the portable media device in which the portable media device automatically scans through media items to assist a user in selecting a desired one of the media items.

Here's Apple's...

Apple continues to work on methods of improving the screens of its Mac and iOS devices. A company patent (number 20120287605) for a display with color control has appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

Techniques are provided for controlling the colors of reflected light out of a display surface in a display device, such that display discoloration (e.g., green tinting) may be reduced, particularly when the display is operating in bright ambient environments. In one embodiment, a display device may include a color filter black mask layer having an arrangement of red, green, and blue color filter areas, where the red and/or blue color filter areas are substantially greater than the green color filter area.

In some embodiments, the display device may include red and blue color filter pigment resin areas which may be disposed over the reflective areas to increase the overall amount of red and blue light that will be generated by reflected light to result in...

By Greg Mills

The late Steve Jobs famously stated that he intended to make "thermonuclear war over Android" since it was a stolen product.

Since then, untold millions of dollars on both sides have been spent trying to hash out Apple's valid smartphone and touch screen tablet patent rights. As Apple has become painfully aware, enforcing patent rights around the world is a very costly and highly unpredictable process. Radioactive fallout blows both ways in nuclear war.

Apple's patent litigation has sparked a bidding war the last few years over any patent remotely related to cell phones and mobile computing. Apple has patented everything patentable they can in the US and many other countries. A lot of intellectual property comes out of its R&D efforts. As the old order of dumb cell phone manufacturing companies fail, the legacy patents they hold are often the greatest asset left over when the dust settles.

The prospects for RIM and...

Now that the latest rev of the iPad nano isn't suitable for wearing as a watch, perhaps Apple will release an iWatch. It might be profitable.

A new report from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has valued the next-gen wearable devices market to be worth more than US$1.5 billion by 2014, up from $800 million this year. These revenues will be largely driven by consumer spending on fitness, multi-functional devices, and healthcare, according to the research group.

Classified as a "future form factor" for computing devices, next generation wearables, including smart glasses and other head-mounted displays, will provide a multitude of functions either independently or in conjunction with a third party platform. Influential players such as Apple and Google have already made key strategic moves in this sector, notes Juniper Research.

The use of wearable devices connected to the...

By Greg Mills

I was idly wandered through the brand new Sam's Club here in Kansas City, Kansas, Friday afternoon. The store is just around the corner from my home. A neighbor, living just a few doors down the street, is the proud manager of the giant new store.

I was there at the grand opening a couple of weeks ago and actually ate the first "tomane torpedo" sold at the food court. Where else can you get a large Nathan's hot dog and giant soft drink for $1.50? 

As I was sampling the free bites of food they give away, I stumbled into the electronics department. The products on sale were all the Apple tablets, iPhones and iPods, as well as the brands X, Y and Z semi-equivalents. Features and prices varied wildly. 

The electronics guy reads my Greg's Bite articles. He commented as soon as he saw me, that as far as he was concerned, I had hit the nail right on the head in my recent article regarding Microsoft's constant marketing gaffs.  I...

From everything I've seen it's clear from the performance of Google Voice Search, that Apple is way behind in the area of voice technology.The performance difference between Apple's Siri and Google's Voice Search is like night and day.

Plus, Apple's reasoning for not putting its digital personal assistant, Siri (even in its currently lackluster state), on as many of its devices as possible makes no sense. Apple needs to address this.

For example, why is there only voice dictation on Mac OS X10.8? Shouldn't the full Siri come with Mountain Lion? They can't claim lack of processing power or memory. And Siri should be able to perform at least as well as does Google Voice Search.

Perhaps now that Eddy Cue is taking over the additional responsibility of Siri and Maps, things on both technologies will improve.

-- Dennis Sellers

An Apple patent (number 20120281828) for the protection of audio or video in a playback device has appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. It involves a method and apparatus to prevent hacking of encrypted audio or video content during playback.

Hackers, using a debugging attachment or other tools, can illicitly access encrypted data in memory in a playback device when the data is decrypted during playback and momentarily stored in digital form. This hacking is defeated here by methodically "poisoning" the encrypted data so that it is no longer playable by a standard decoder.

The poisoning involves deliberate alteration of certain bit values. On playback, the player invokes a special secure routine that provides correction of the poisoned bit values, for successful playback.

Here's Apple's background on the invention: "The protection of digital content transferred between computers over a network and transferred from a computer to an associated...

This is good news for Apple, not so much for Microsoft: large law firms' chief information officers are supporting their lawyers’ use of Apple and Android personal devices for firm business, as 88% expect to provide less BlackBerry support over the next 12 months.

However, only 7% of technology managers plan to migrate their enterprise systems to Microsoft’s touchscreen-friendly Windows 8 operating system in the next year.
This is according to the annual survey of law technology in the November issue of ALM’s "The American Lawyer" and online at americanlawyer.com. Other highlights in The American Lawyer’s new issue include:

While allowing personal phone, tablet and other device use, law firm CIOs are still wrestling with the security issues they present, according to the survey. Nearly two-thirds of the firms prohibit lawyers from using cloud storage and synchronization services on mobile devices, and a similar number use mobile device management (MDM) software...

It's always fun to play the "what company should Apple buy?" game. I have a new suggestion: Sharp, a major supplier of LCD displays to Apple (and other manufacturers).

The company is bleeding money and is in the middle of a restructuring plan. Sharp is projecting a net loss of ¥450 billion (approximately US$5.6 billion -- yep, that's billion with a "B") for the year. And the company's stock has been downgraded to junk status by ratings agencies.

What's more Sharp is hoping that Apple and Intel will invest in it, reports "Computerworld" (http://macte.ch/sXKHs). Perhaps Apple should just buy it outright.

Who knows if Apple plans on making its own HDTVs as the rumor mill has suggested for months now (or is it years?). If it is, transforming Sharp's excellent Aquos TVs with some Apple magic could be a start. Sharp also makes a solid line of soundbars, which could be a lucrative accessory for an iTV (...

Apple has been granted a patent (number 8307425) for portable computer accounts that could let you store your user accounts, authentication information and user home directories on an external storage media and transfer them from one device to another.

Measures are included for detecting tampering of stored information and for preventing possibly conflicting or damaging account and file information from entering a host device.

Here's Apple's background and summary of the invention: "User account data typically includes a user name, an account identifier, a home directory location and management information. For local accounts (i.e., non-network accounts) this information can be stored on a local directory database on a host device. For network accounts, account information can be stored on a network directory server (e.g. LDAP).

"User authentication information (e.g., a password) can be stored separately. For local accounts, a secure hash of a password can be...

Apple has been granted a patent (number 8305728) by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for a . It involves a cooling system that blows ionized air through an electronic device, controlling its path by creating electromagnetic fields that can be dynamically adjusted to direct cooling where it's needed.

Embodiments provide various apparatus and techniques for deflecting or redirecting a flow of ionized air generated from an ionic wind generator. In general, a deflection field generator can be located proximate to the path of the flow of ionized air. The deflection field generator is configured to generate an electromagnetic field, which deflects a least a portion of the flow of ionized air to a different path and may possibly increase local heat transfer.

Here's Apple's background on the invention: "Many modern electronic systems generate a large amount of heat, and a variety of different cooling mechanisms may be used to cool these electronic systems. For personal...

The evolving mobile app and cloud marketplace is expected to grow to a U.S.$340 billion opportunity in the next five years, according to a new "Market Vision" report from Yankee Group (www.yankeegroup.com).

App monetization models are tipping toward in-app purchasing. In 2012, more than 20% of U.S. smartphone app users clicked on links within apps to purchase extra content. Developers, content owners and ecosystem competitors are backing in-app commerce as the surest way to make money from apps.

Enterprises are prioritizing social-mobile-cloud (SoMoClo) initiatives. Almost 10% of companies say enterprise social networks will be a technological priority during the next year, and 47% are increasing their IT budgets around mobile user hardware. Fully 53% are increasing spend on mobile applications, while 36% consider cloud-based services a technological priority.

iOS device owners are the core...